


a lion's mark

by icemakestars



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: M/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Tumblr: FTLGBTales
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icemakestars/pseuds/icemakestars
Summary: Everyone has a tattoo that will one day lead them to their soulmate. Lyon's is a majestic golden lion. He has no idea what it could mean.





	a lion's mark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jinx13GXA](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jinx13GXA/gifts).



> Honestly........ wow. Of all the people I could have gotten for this exchange, I got you, Jinx. How amazing is that? I hope by combining your rare pair with you favourite trope this will make you happy. 
> 
> I love you, sweetheart. Happy Valentines day <3

****It was cold inside, which was not unusual, and yet both boys were curled by the fire, shirtless, inspecting each other’s bare torsos.

“Mine is way more impressive than yours!”  Lyon smirked, and Gray smacked him in the arm, irritated. Still, his azure eyes were wide, and full of awe; he had never seen anything as beautiful as the tattoo on Lyon’s pectoral before.

The lion head was a mere outline, and yet it sat poised, majestic, in deep golden swirls across Lyon’s body. He had a tattoo too, of course, but the black Chinese dragon that curled around Gray’s forearm was more simplistic, less memorable.

These markings were all they had been able to talk about since Ur had explained their origins, sitting them down and talking in smooth, hushed tones. It was rare that all three of them were calm and together, but Gray’s pain had made him insensitive, and he had mocked Lyon’s lack of knowledge on the subject matter.

“You don’t even know what your tattoo is?” Gray had sneered, and Lyon blushed furiously, indignant that the younger boy could know something so fundamental to their society, and yet he did not. Growing up on the streets had not been kind to Lyon, and he had had nobody to speak to, or explain these matters to him. The peculiar lion’s head was a mystery to him growing up; but when Ur took in the two orphans, she was agreeing to take care of them mentally, as well as physically.

Ur stretched her limbs, threw some more kindle on the fire, and smiled gently at the two boys. They leaned forward, eagerly, and she rested a hand on both of their cheeks. She had never been more of a mother to them than in that moment, sitting there and explaining an ancient magic to her two adopted children. Gray had heard this story from his parents, but still he sat there tentatively, his penance for being rude to Lyon earlier. He had never had a brother before, and it took some getting used to. It wasn’t a bad feeling to him, though; far from it.

“Back before our time, when dragons still roamed free, there was a great wizard who had a large family of daughters. Each of these daughters had their own personalities, their own pain and heartache, and he wanted to protect them. The thing was, the wizard was old and did not know how much time he had left on this world. So he did all he could do; he enchanted his family to always be able to tell when they met their soulmate, so that they would never be hurt by somebody who was wasting their time. To do this, he gave them markings that were symbolic of their loves, and as they married and had children, families grew and spread, and so did the wizard’s magic; not long after, generation after generation were experiencing the magic marks, and it just became our norm.”

Rolling up her sleeve, Ur exposed her own mark, a series of deep blue swirls covering the pale expanse of her wrist. The boys had seen it during training, of course, but had never thought to ask. Ur smiled at it, like she was seeing something that was not there; or rather, someone. Her thumb ran across the mark, and there was a redness to her cheeks that made her seem younger than her years, somehow vulnerable.

“I lost my love when she was still young. This was before Ultear was born, of course. They always say that the greatest pain a person can know, but…”

The sentence hung in the air, heavy and unfinished. Lyon looked down at his hands, and Gray sniffed loudly. Both boys knew how it ended:

_But it does not compare to the pain of losing a child._

Standing abruptly, Ur cleared her throat, hands on hips as she stared down at her two disciples.

“Right! Who’s for hot chocolate?”

Both boys grinned, jumping up and racing to the kitchen, and Ur watched them go, grateful that they could not see the single, lone tear that slipped down her cheek.

She took one last glance at her mark before she pulled down her sleeve and followed the boys into the kitchen, relieved that they were discussing everything from species of lizard to if they could lick their elbows, the weight of the previous conversation already forgotten in their young minds.

~’*’~

Magnolia baked in the heat of the summer, and the wizards of Fairy Tail felt it more than most. Gray was naked by midday, threatening to peel off his skin just to be rid of the suffocating warmth, and Lucy was pressed against the bar, where Mirajane had set up a fan to rotate around the guil, allowing short breaks of respite.

“Someone… put potatoes on me, I’m cooking, I swear it,” Lucy groaned, and Mirajane laughed at her, but it lacked energy, and the barmaid soon slumped against the wall in defeat.

“Well, you lot are certainly lively today,” Loke grinned, and Lucy barely managed to lift an eyebrow at his sudden appearance.

“You’d better not be using my magic to come here,” She muttered, and Loke slid into the next to her, laughing. The small breeze his movements created were bliss, and Lucy sighed happily.

“Your concern is touching as always, Princess, but I’m using my own magic to be here and see my guildmates.”

“Are you even a member of Fairy Tail anymore?” Lucy rolled her eyes at him, and he stared at her. There was a hardness to him then that contrasted his usual bravado, and it was enough to have Lucy sitting up, giving him her full attention.

Loke removed his jacket, loosened his tie, and began to unbutton his dress shirt, much to Lucy’s ardent protests.

“Why are you doing a Gray, Loke?” Cana questioned, taking a swig from her barrel. Gray protested this, but nobody had the heart to point out that, as nude as he was, he did not have a leg to stand on.

Soon enough Loke had lost his shirt, and before Lucy had a chance to admire his impressive chest, he turned so that his back was facing her. In the middle of his back was a lime-green guild symbol. But that was not what grabbed Lucy’s attention; on his forearm was the outline of a snowflake, and Lucy almost fell from her stool in her haste to stand, to touch the marking.

“You have a match mark? I thought spirits were immune to that, not being human and all!” Her eyes were wide, and it was the most animated she had been all day. Sweat beaded on her forehead, slipped down her neck, and she fell back onto her seat.

Loke shrugged. “I guess because of the amount of time I spent in the human world, I became the exception? We’re not sure on that front, but I definitely _have_ one. Mine’s a snowflake, Princess. What’s yours?”

She blushed, and Mirajane chuckled behind her hand.

“Um... it doesn’t matter. Forget I asked.”

Lucy crossed her arm over her chest in discomfort, knowing the tarot card that covered the majority of her left breast: the Lovers. Two women stood in front of the ocean. Mirajane had seen it, had commented on how it matched Juvia’s, only instead of the ocean, Juvia’s lovers were stood in front of the moon. It was reminiscent of Cana’s mark; the moon pulling the tide, and the meaning was clear. That did not mean that Lucy was ready to accept it.

Idly, Lucy wondered about Loke’s mark. The obvious link was to Gray, but Gray had found his dragon in Natsu; Loke was a lion, so it did not match. She did not ponder it any longer, the heat and the questions causing a headache to form in the front of her skull.

The guild went back to melting in peace, Loke tried to pick a fight with Gray, and the conversation was forgotten.

~’*’~

Lyon, no longer fearing his mark, pushed it to the back of his mind. Life passed, simultaneously over and underwhelming to him, and the next ten years were a blur of poorly suppressed emotions and guilt. Ur’s death, Galuna Island, Zeref, Deliora; he was ashamed of his heritage, but it was all he had.

Life improved, of course, once he joined Lamia Scale. The guild became his family, and he could keep track of Gray without actually having to speak to him. In many ways, it was perfect. Everything he had ever wanted, besides surpassing Ur, was coming true, and whether Lyon felt that he deserved it or not was irrelevant; this was his reality, and he was determined to live for it.

“The Masters have decided to combat the threat of the Barram Alliance once and for all, starting with the most prominent threat, the Oracion Seis. I’m sending Lyon, Sherry, and Jura. If you brats fail, I’ll spin you!”

The old woman was eccentric and tiresome, but in a warm way; like a great aunt that, no matter how she yelled, there was a fondness for. Lyon felt it then, in the trust that she was placing in him and Sherry despite their respective pasts. A second chance was something that Lyon was grateful for, something he had found within the guild, and he knew that Fairy Tail would be participating in this battle. With any luck, he would be able to fight alongside Gray again, prove to his brother that he had changed; that things between them could improve.

He got his wish.

The Oracion Seis were formidable; nothing like Lyon had encountered before; their resources alone were enough to terrify him. Gray flanked him on one side, Lucy and Sherry on the other. The women bickered, and Lyon wanted to point out that the midst of battle was hardly the time nor place for such pettiness, but he and Gray had been the same, had lost their shirts in the heat of their argument. Fighting with Gray, their match marks exposed, creating ice in beautiful, magical sculptures, made Lyon feel like a child again; as though none of the pain and suffering and tears had ever happened at all. But there were scars along the left side of Gray’s body that told a different story, and Lyon swallowed his guilt down at seeing the after-effects of Gray’s failed Iced Shell.

They were surrounded by lesser magic guilds, mere lackies; but their numbers were incredible, and even weak, they were slowing the group of wizards down.

“We need to reduce their numbers, and quickly!” Lyon yelled, sending an ice eagle flying through the crowd, picking up and dropping criminals onto one another.

Sherry animated the trees around them, Gray made shields and geysers, blocking attacks and separating the group of evil wizards; and Lucy stood grasping her keys. She found the one that she desired, and smirked to herself.

“Open, gate of the lion: Loke!”

Light exploded from Lucy’s hand, bright and golden and a familiar, a hue that Lyon had seen every day of his life. His step faltered, eyes darting to the tattoo on his chest, a bust of a lion.

 _Open, gate of the lion_.

A man appeared, smartly dressed, grinning like a cat.

“Always a pleasure to serve you, Princess.”

He turned, and his gaze caught Lyon’s; they both halted. The man was beautiful, with a mane of ginger hair and sharp, shining teeth. He had two sets of ears, which was odd; but Lyon found that he did not mind. It added to the feline sense of lithe strength, and Lyon was surprised with the urge that passed over him, to touch those lean muscles and that soft hair.

An enemy ran at him, and with one hand he produced an ice panther that leapt on him, taking him down with ease.

“You’re an ice wizard?” The celestial spirit yelped, and Lyon nodded slowly, quizzical.

In a second the man had stripped, his muscles defined and pale and so close that if Lyon just reached out--

But then he turned to the side, and his match mark became apparent. A snowflake, indigo, the same shade as Lyon’s guild mark, and Lucy let out a nervous laugh.

“No way…”

Gray noticed next, and the horror that darkened his features was fitting for the middle of battle, but maybe not this situation.

“My brother and my best mate? No fucking way.”

“Lyon-sama…” Sherry blushed, eyes wide, and Lyon cleared his throat.

His heart was racing, heat crawled over his skin; but there was a mission to do, a job to complete. Being a guild wizard meant putting yourself second, and his personal life came long after protecting Cait Shelter; still, if Lyon’s destined match was a celestial spirit, that brought more questions to mind than he had time to answer. There was no doubting it; he had to survive this battle to get to know the man with a lion’s mane, and take the next tentative steps towards his future, whatever that may be.

**Author's Note:**

> shouout to evren (gaysquared) for being my lovely beta!


End file.
